DD starts school tomorrow. It's so hard to believe she is a junior now! Where does the time go? She is really excited to see her friends. She probably only saw her best friend twice this summer, although they are constantly attached at the fingertips (texting, IMing) and she spent one day at the mall with five or six of them. We've had such a full summer between swimming, gardening, visiting family, getting the house ready for sale, and day trips, that schedules just never seemed to line up.

I'm not sure what we'll be doing for DS's homeschooling as WAVA is so behind on processing stuff that even though they've had all the necessary information for quite some time they haven't issued us our password for getting into the system, and they certainly haven't mailed out the consumable books. I did manage to get a list of the required 7nth grade reading books he has to read 2 of, so if nothing else he can start reading My Side of the Mountain.

I can also print out some standard 7nth grade refresher math work sheets for him to do. And I can find a spelling lesson and have him practice his cursive. Last year in 6th grade at the middle school they did not do spelling at all or have the kids even using cursive. I know it is becoming obsolete but I still think it should be taught. I mean how are people going to be able to read old letters or old documents in the museums if they don't know how to read and write cursive? Not a very interesting curriculum to start with, but what are you going to do? I hope WAVA gets it's act together fast this week. They are really such a good program, but it doesn't work so well when you can't get access to it.

I need to cook up the food for DD's breakfasts and lunches for the week. She eats low carb at those meals as part of her pre-diabetes diet so I do stuff up beforehand because DD and mornings don't mix so well when it comes to cooking. Better for us to do stuff up the day before so she can just heat and eat or pack to take when she's groggy.

She'll be taking sausages and cabbage shreds this week for lunches and for breakfasts she'll be eating a low carb meatloaf (no breadcrumbs) and cucumber slices for breakfasts so that needs to be cooked up before dinner tonight. Or chopped up and sliced in the cases of the cabbage and cucumbers. While I'm cutting and slicing I'll also cut up the broccoli and cauliflower for this week's stir-fry. The carrots and celery can wait until the day as they don't hold as well cut up.

I've got some spreadsheet updating to do tomorrow. Because of the long weekend none of the first of the month autopays go through until tomorrow morning. Then I can update the checkbook.

DD will need her photo money and her ASB and yearbook money this week. ASB and yearbook is $90 together, I think. Not sure on the photo money, but last year it was around $24 for the package we bought. We use the photos as Christmas presents. I'm going to have to arrange something for DS this year since he's homeschooled. Maybe WalMart or Sears. Unless the mall has a photo place again. They come and go so much over the years.

I need to do a little grocery shopping today, maybe spend $30 and then I shouldn't need to spend any money until Friday, which is payday.

Okay, so I've figured out the meal planning for the week. It would be too difficult to work around my nephews, so I'll be making easier, less expensive food than usual as my mother can get very, very lazy about cooking when she invites them here and then they end up making puppy dog eyes at me because they'd much rather have my real cooking than another can of chili and tuna fish or toasted cheese sandwiches.

I can't afford to feed them our nicer cuts of meat from the farm, teenage boys eat too much, especially these two. If I wasn't up to my ears in medical, dental, and vision that had to paid right now and wasn't budgeting our food money so closely I could have managed, but right now I can't. I can spare some hamburger and chicken from the farm as long as there are plenty of starches along with them for the boys to fill up on.

Mom did ask me to make a big pan of lasagne which we'll have for dinner one night and then the boys can eat it for a couple lunches, and she even paid for most of the ingredients for a change, but everything else will probably come out of my pocket. They love my spaghetti. They love my pizza. They don't arrive until Tuesday so I am holding off on my pizza making until later in the week. I am over the craving anyway.

I will be making a lot of bread this week. Double batches each time for certain, because we will need rolls and I'm sure they will still eat a lot of PB&J and tuna fish sandwiches, because they are pretty much constantly eating when they visit.

Monday--
Salmon
Green beans
Fried potatoes
Galia melon

Tuesday--
Lasagne
Homemade garlic bread
Salad
Watermelon

Wednesday--
Pizza with pepperoni, ham, red bell peppers and onions
Salad

Thursday--
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Leftover homemade garlic bread
Cole slaw

Friday--
Chicken and vegetables stir-fry
Egg fried rice
Apples (pear for DS)

Saturday--
Cheeseburgers
Homemade french fries
Cole slaw
Berries

Sunday--
Fried Chicken
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green Beans
Drop biscuits with homemade jam

It's Day 2 of the September No Eating Out Challenge and I spent a grand total of 2 hours arguing with myself (off and on) about ordering a pizza. *sighs* I did not do it, and I have a roast in the crockpot for dinner and had chili for lunch (even though I really wanted pizza). I have decided that pizza is on the agenda for tomorrow. I will go ahead and make the dough tonight though so all I have to do tomorrow is roll it out. Well, I say roll. I really just push it out with my hands.

Anyway...the applesauce I made yesterday turned out well, though I did end up having to add some more sugar because those apples were really tart still with only a half cup. I ended using a total of 1.5 cups altogether. More than I wanted to use, but far less than what goes into jam. And I don't think anyone wants to eat sour applesauce, so it was the best thing to do. Next time I make it I will do it with different apples than the ones from that tree.

I ended up with 8 half pints. I thought I'd get at least 10. You just never know until it goes in the jars though. Everything processed just fine. I have yet to have a jar not seal properly for me. I have now filled one entire shelf with home canned food, stacked three jars deep. I'll probably start another batch of tomatoes cooking down tomorrow, since I am using one of the crocks for tonight's dinner. I want to make up some mustard this week, too, something slightly spicier than the last batch.

I need to sit down and figure out my meal plan for this week. School starts for DD on Tuesday so I have to plan her school lunches as well. All I know for sure is that tomorrow is pizza.

One of the ducks laid a doozy of an egg today. In the photo here it shows 3 duck eggs of normal size and the extra large one.



The small duck eggs are still bigger than large chicken eggs. I should have put one in the bowl for comparison, but didn't. You can see the mottling on the shell. It really makes them look more dirty than anything, but this is with them clean. We are getting 2 duck eggs about every other day and 6 to 8 chicken eggs every day.

Although it has been pleasant during the day, our temps are around to 67 to 70 degrees during the day with a breeze, and about 61 to 63 at night. I'm not so sure what my tomatoes are going to do with that kind of weather. I found 3 volunteer tomato plants in a place where I'm not sure tomato plants have ever been planted, but when you have escape chickens and cheeky squirrels running about the place, things grow where nature plants them sometimes. Two of them have green tomatoes on them and they are not the same variety.

A stupid slug ate my bell pepper that was almost fully red. I hope it got major heartburn. I mean, seriously, a slug in August? No fair. I am finally getting flowers on some of the slicing cucumber plants. Still no sign of actual broccoli heads on the broccoli plants though they are full and lush plants. At least it is a cold weather crop so going into cooler weather is not a bad thing for it. I think they may have been some of the longer maturing varities. I didn't pay attention when I planted them and obviously I should have.

The green beans from the first planting that I had thought were done, surprised me by producing a bit more and there are some flowers on it still. I left the plants in because they are good at fixing nitrogen in the soil and got a surprise second harvest.

Today I noticed some blackberries ripening. The blackberries seemed to have been done two weeks ago or so, but maybe there are two varieties in there. The birds planted them so we don't know. It's only on one end, so there won't be much, but a few for fresh eating. And the raspberries are putting out again. I didn't realize it, but Mom says they produce twice. A big crop in July and then a smaller crop of much bigger berries, but not so plentiful, in late August/September. Huh. I knew they had strawberries that produced two crops in the summer (even if they call them everbearing, it's more like two crops, really), but not raspberries. I doubt I will pick them, though. The kids will for fresh eating.

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I made a very large chicken today for lunch. 5.65 pounds. After we ate some I pulled all the remaining meat off the bones and threw the carcass in the freezer with another one from before for future stock. We will get several lunches off this bird this week. I ran across this blog post today of how to get 22 meals (well, servings) off one organic chicken spending a total of $49 (which includes the cost of the chicken). An interesting read and gave me some new thoughts. I'm good at stretching a chicken, but this certainly gave me some ideas. It's here if anyone is interested:

http://www.squawkfox.com/2011/01/31/1-chicken-22-meals-49-bu....

We haven't made it down to the farm yet this month and it's probably going to be a couple more weeks before I do make it there. I am trying to use up every bit of what we do have in the freezer as well as use up some other things, like bags of rice that are cooked but frozen and some veggies I overbought. Also trying to keep up with the food coming from the garden, so the menues will reflect that this week. I need to bake bread tomorrow. DH goes back to Alaska tomorrow.

Monday--
Spaghetti with homemade sauce (I have a bunch of tomatoes, an onion an some garlic to use up, not to mention fresh basil)
Homemade garlic bread
Meatballs (half beef, half pork)
Melon
Birthday cake

Tuesday--
Beef and broccoli stir-fry (will be throwing in fresh green beans and yellow zucchini as well as the broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and celery that need using up in the fridge)
Brown rice
Melon

Wednesday--
Lamb de Provence (sounds fancy doesn't it? It's ground lamb patties mixed with herbes de provence)
Fresh green beans (boiled with a slice of bacon)
Fresh bread with homemade jelly
Peanut butter cookies made with duck eggs

Thursday--
Fried chicken
Fried potatoes
Cole slaw
Berries

Friday--
Homemade pizza with Canadian bacon, pepperoni, red bell pepper, onion
Cole slaw

Saturday--
Bacon cheeseburgers on homemade buns
Homemade French Fries
Cole slaw

Sunday--
Beef pot roast (last one in the freezer)
Corn on the cob
Salad
Drop biscuits with homemade jam

Alternate dinner in case of laziness--Tacos.

Lunches will come off the roast chicken I made today and a meatloaf I will make when it runs out (we have a lot of eggs to use up this week!) and veggies from the garden.

Breakfasts will be eggs of some sort (probably omelettes with Canadian bacon, green onions, bell pepper, and cheese) and then kohlrabi or cucumber on the side. DS will likely have pancakes as well (he makes his own now).

Here's my menu plan for the week. We didn't have pot roast today because I forgot to thaw it out and put it in, hence it will be on tomorrow's menu.

Monday--
Beef pot roast
Corn on the cob
Coleslaw
Cantaloupe

Tuesday--
Bacon cheeseburgers
Homemade fries
Leftover coleslaw
Berries

Wednesday--
Spaghetti
Meatballs
Garlic toast
Salad

Thursday--
Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches
Homemade fries
Leftover coleslaw
Berries

Friday--
Homemade Pizza
Salad
Berries

Saturday--
Tacos
Nectarines

Sunday--
Roast chicken
Baked potatoes
Green beans
Nectarines

This will be an off week since we will be in Tacoma Wednesday through Friday, so I am just posting menu plans for the other days of the week.

Monday--
Bacon cheeseburgers
Homemade French fries
Cole slaw
Leftover fruit

Tuesday--
Cornish game hens
Steamed potatoes
Cole slaw
Berries

Wednesday through Friday in Tacoma (eating out and sandwiches)

Saturday--
Fair food (Northwest Washington Fair)
Probably corn dogs or fried fish for me and DS and sliced beef sandwiches for DH (BBW) and DD (plain), corn on the cob, fully loaded funnel cake, strawberry lemonade, Dutch doughnuts, onion rings or squirrely fries, ice cream, sno-cones, and cotton candy (oh, I'll be so sick! LOL)

Sunday--
Korean food (daughter's birthday celebration, since her father wasn't home for her actual birthday)

I have some things that I need to use up during the early part of the week so am planning my meals for that accordingly. I accidentally made two loaves of bread instead of one yesterday (was on autopilot and forgot to switch recipes). I've planned to use up meat that is in the freezer and not purchase any new meat this week. I am also going to roast a whole chicken tomorrow for lunches this week.

Monday--
Spaghetti with homemade sauce (need to use up an onion)
Meatballs (the pork and hamburger ones as I need to use up some parsley and I've got some fresh basil and oregano from the garden that is ready)
Garlic toast
Cantaloupe (needs to be eaten ASAP)

Tuesday--
Meatball sandwiches using leftover meatballs and leftover sauce
Cole slaw
Last of the cherries, plus fresh blueberries

Wednesday--
Homemade pizza with pepperoni, crumbled leftover meatballs if there are any left, the last of the yellow bell pepper, and onion
Cole slaw

Thursday--
Club sandwiches (with my brandywine tomato!) or toasted ham and cheese according to preference
Homemade french fries
The first kohlrabi from the garden
Berries

Friday--
Bacon cheeseburgers
Corn on the cob
Nectarines
Salad

Saturday--
Chicken and broccoli stir-fry
Leftover fruit
Homemade peanut butter cookies

Sunday--
Pot roast
Potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Drop biscuits with homemade jam

Well, not really, but it feels like it. I picked a lot of berries today and I still have one and a half trees left. I know berries grow on bushes, but you haven't seen the size of these ones. Most definitely trees! I packed up several quarts for the freezer and then a quart bag full to take to my friend tomorrow and she will also get an 8 ounce container of blueberry jam.

This is what I am seeing right now when I close my eyes:



I still think I would have a lot more berries in the freezer right now if it weren't for the demands of this bunch:



The tub there is what we used for a brooder when they were babies. The plan is to dig a hole and sink it as a pond for the ducks. Right now they use an old, plastic turtle sandbox for their mini-ponds. Both the lid and the bottom are filled with water. Recycling.

This is Ecru and PipSqueak. Pipsqueak (along with Half-pint) was the runt, but you can see she is now bigger than the Leghorn. She's a black australorpe.



We are not sure, but we think Ecru (whose twin is named Eggshell) might be a rooster. We are hoping not since we can't have roosters in town. Personally, I think Pipsqueak might be a rooster, but they don't have combs yet and though they are loud they aren't exactly crowing yet.

Over here, Half-pint (black australorpe) and Henrietta (auracana) are napping in the sun after eating their fill of berries and finishing their dirt baths.



We are getting little eggs in brownish pink and white which means that one of the Leghorns (Eggshell or Ecru) is laying (the white ones) and one of the golden sex linked (the pinkish one) is laying. Not sure if it's Curious or Georgie.

Today we had four eggs (2 littles and 2 bigs). Queen is hiding her nest again, but I'm sure she's laying somewhere. She's not broody, she just doesn't like to give them up. In another week or two everyone should be laying. Then it won't be just chickens and blueberries coming out my ears, but eggs, too. As it is, we are no longer having to purchase eggs for this household, so yay. One more thing we can supply for ourselves and take out of the grocery budget.

Oh, I almost forgot! Silver will pose for blueberries now. She's our silver lace wing wyandotte and she's always been shyest. Not if there are blueberries at stake, though.

I ended up having to swap today's dinner with tomorrow's. The bread was starting to mold. How DH and DS did not notice this at breakfast or lunch I do not know, but I noticed it, so out it went to the compost bin. There were only six slices left, the perfect amount for dinner sandwiches for me and the kids (DH is on his way back to Alaska), but sadly it had to go. I think maybe the heat is making it not last as long as it did when it was cooler.

So we had spaghetti with plain tomato sauce and hamburger (I didn't feel like taking the time to do meatballs or my special sauce) and fresh berries from the yard. No garlic toast because of no good bread. I didn't even make a vegetable, but no one was complaining. We like simple spaghetti even if we like fancy spaghetti more. Part of my brain was saying just go out to eat. I wish that would go away, but it does crop up a lot when I am tired, which I am really tired today. Fortunately I had my challenge to fall back on and made it through day four of no eating out just fine.

I will make a loaf of bread in the morning and we will have our sandwiches for dinner tomorrow. I ended up buying a yellow bell pepper today when I picked up a gallon of milk, instead of a green one. They had no organic green ones and the red ones were not very uniformly ripe. The yellow ones were perfect. So I will have yellow bell pepper slices on my sandwich tomorrow and later this week on my pizza.

The nice thing about planning out my meals for the week is that I can switch them around in a pinch when something goes wrong, like moldy bread.

I think I may can blueberry jelly tomorrow. I have to pick the bushes tomorrow morning before the birds (not our chickens, but wild birds) get them. They are loaded and they are too much of a temptation to the sparrows and chickadees if left too long.

Today I picked some blackberries. I am working towards filling up another gallon size baggy in the freezer. So far there is just today's pint. There are still a lot of red and green berries on the canes so I know they will get there eventually, but it may be a week or two before I have enough to make more blackberry jam. By then I am hoping that the Himaylayan blackberries that grow wild behind my chiropractor's office (and don't get sprayed) will be ripe and ready to pick.

Other than picking a few berries it was a pretty lazy day. I just didn't have the gumption to do anything much. I hope I'm not coming down with a cold. My throat was a tinge scratchy this morning and yesterday morning, but got better as the day progressed. It could just be allergies. It's been about 12 weeks since I've had a bad cold and I'd just as soon keep up that record since I had such a horrific fall and winter with illness after illness.

I did spend a lot of time going over the absentee voter's ballot. We have a lot of folks this time I knew nothing about so I researched them to figure out who to vote for. I also put together a documentation packet to send higher up the school's food chain. We are still getting the runaround by the lower level administration in regards to my son's concussion that another student gave him second to last day of school, so we went higher up. Don't know if it'll do us any good at all, but I'd like to at least know we are being heard.

Financially, I added $2.65 to the coin jar. Not really a money day otherwise.

I am going to try to do a few easier meals this week, I think. It's supposed to be hot all week and long and involved food is not something I really want to get into. I will use the crock pot at least twice. Oh, speaking of using the crock pot, I made up the applesauce and DH pronounced it very delicious. this is what I did:

5 apples, peeled, cored and segmented into eighths (I think they were pink lady or cameo, which are the only type I buy other than honeycrisp usually and they weren't honeycrisp)
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Put all ingredients in the crockpot on high for 6 hours. It was supposed to be 3 to 4 but I forgot about it. No harm done though. It made 2 12 ounce jars and one 8 ounce jar (or 3 half pints total, if I had been able to find more 8 ounce jars). Process in a water bath canner for 20 minutes to make it shelf stable. It is nice to have those apples out of my fridge produce drawer.

Anyway, planned dinners for the week:

Monday--
Club sandwiches
Homemade french fries from home grown potatoes
Cantaloupe
Cole slaw

Tuesday--
Spaghetti with homemade sauce
Meatballs
Homemade garlic toast
Salad

Wednesday--
Meatball sandwiches made with leftover meatballs, leftover sauce, and leftover garlic toast
Leftover cole slaw
Berries

Thursday--
Pork chops
Fried potatoes
Green beans
Berries

Friday--
Homemade pizza (made with leftover spaghetti sauce) and whatever toppings we have on hand, probably green peppers, onions, Canadian bacon and uncured pepperoni
Cantaloupe

Saturday--
Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches
Homemade chicken noodle soup (from a chicken roasted for lunches and then crock potted to make stock and then soup)
Cole slaw
Homemade french fries

Sunday--
Beef chuck roast made in the crockpot with carrots and potatoes
Green beans
Drop biscuits with homemade jam

At least it's day 3 for me. It's probably day 2 for everyone else since I started the day I announced it. Anyway, I've done good so far, but today I was really tempted. I didn't give in to it, but I had a really strong urge to get half a Subway foot long club sandwich on their 9-grain honey oat bread. So I think I'm going to build a sandwich night into my meal plan this week.

One of the things I discovered about sub sandwiches is that I like them with cucumbers and green peppers on them. I discovered this at an open house that was serving Subway sandwiches this way, and ever since it's like I can't get enough of them. So I think tomorrow will be sandwich night. The only thing I'll need to buy will be a green pepper.

I have been wanting some simpler meals on these hot days, and I have plenty of excellent homemade bread so I think it will be a good idea for early in the week. Probably for tomorrow. Since tomorrow is airport day that does tend to make things easier. Otherwise DH ends up eating at the airport and the kids and I don't end up eating until 8 at night and that is no fun.

I didn't put a pot roast in again for Sunday dinner. I don't know what is up with me forgetting, but oh, well. It can sit in the freezer a while longer. I am making pizza for dinner instead. I've got the dough started in the bread machine. We have leftover homemade sausage, uncured pepperoni, and onions.

I have some leftover homemade spaghetti sauce that is enough to top the pizza and plenty of cheese. I will be using the cheese that is getting a little hard first. It will melt just fine but is a little weird for eating straight. I was going to use leftover meatballs from the spaghetti earlier in the week, but my new meatball recipe was so well-received the last of the meatballs were devoured yesterday. I will definitely be making those again.

I am thinking about making up a batch of applesauce in the crock pot. There are five apples that have been sitting in my fridge for a while and I am tired of them taking up space. I can do a small batch and water bath can them in half-pint jars. I won't even have to get out the big canner to do that, just do them in a large pot. Then they will not be taking up room in my fridge.

I'm doing a no eating out challenge for the next two weeks. Does anyone want to join me? Our day in Seattle really knocked me for a loop physically. I ended up with a stomach ache for a day afterwards and that was just from two meals out that day. Plus it made my weight bounce up and it took until today for it to be back down to what it was the morning we went to Seattle. Yuck.

So no money will be spent on eating out for the next 14 days. And I will stick to my meal plans except for maybe rotating days depending on tiredness. If I'm exhausted it's easier to do toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, canned veggies, and homemade fries than it is to do chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and fresh cooked veggies.

I would love to have some support on this challenge and I know there are a couple of people who are struggling with not eating out right now, so come and join me and we'll cheer each other along.

So here's my meal plan for the week. Tuesday will be in Seattle. We are taking lunch in a cooler, but will have dinner out at the center house. Or whatever they are calling it nowadays. The money comes out of our saved vacation fund money.

Monday--
Fried chicken
Coleslaw
Corn on the cob
Nectarines

Tuesday--
Meal out (probably some kind of Asian stir-fry for me so I can be sure of veggies and who knows what for everyone else)

Wednesday--
Pork chops
Steamed new potatoes
Yellow summer squash/broccoli/cauliflower medley
Black cherries

Thursday--
Spaghetti
Meatballs (new recipe with ground pork and ground beef)
Fresh blueberries, blackberries and raspberries from the garden
Leftover cole slaw

Friday--
Homemade pizza topped with sausage (from the food co-op), bacon (from the farm), uncured pepperoni, onions, and green peppers
Salad from the garden

Saturday--
Bacon cheeseburgers
Homemade french fries
Leftover yellow summer squash/broccoli/cauliflower
Fresh berries from the garden and/or leftover cherries

Sunday--
Beef pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Drop biscuits with homemade jam

Tonight's dinner was fantastic. I absolutely love it when a super easy meal comes together so superbly. Grilled pork chops, corn on the cob, drop biscuits with homemade jam, just a few blackberries from the garden and broccoli/cauliflower/yellow summer squash. And freshly squeezed lemonade from scratch. I had originally planned to make daikon medallions for the low carb veg, but the daikon was extraordinarily limp when I went shopping and I wasn't going to buy it when it was not firm and crisp. Fortunately there was plenty of broccoli and cauliflower on hand.

There was just so much flavor in the meal that everyone was more than satisfied and we just kept saying things like MMMmmm and that was good, etc., during the whole meal. Not bad for boiling a couple of things and throwing something else on the George Foreman grill. The most complicated thing was making the biscuits and that's just four ingredients. Takes me less than five minutes to mix it and drop them onto the cookie sheet.

--------------------

I picked two pints of blackberries today. In two or three more days I should have enough in the freezer to make jam.

DH has been home since midnight on Tuesday and let's just say the strawberry jam level is getting very low. The pint was almost full when he got home. To be fair he is not the only one eating it, but it is less than 1/4 full now. Good thing I have several more jars, but I need to make some other flavors quick before he plows through it all.

I still haven't made my apricot jam, but I plan to do that soon. Maybe tonight.

-------------------

I don't think I am going to get as many tomatoes as I had hoped for by the end of the season, but there is a sustainable farm that grows really good ones in my county and I think it might be well worth it to buy a couple of bushels from them if I need to.

I forgot to post my meal-planning for the week. Things got a little topsy-turvy anyway on Sunday because I forgot to put the roast in the crockpot so we ended up having roast chicken on Sunday and pot roast tonight. But I really ought to post the rest of my meal plan for the week because I find without the accountability it is far too easy to go "Screw it, let's go out." And I figure tomorrow especially since I will be canning all day I don't want to go without a plan. So...

Tuesday--
Bacon cheeseburgers
Homemade french fries
Coleslaw
Blackberries and blueberries

Wednesday--
Porkchops
Daikon Medallions
Corn on the cob
Drop biscuits with homemade apricot jam

Thursday--
Carne Asada (from this recipe:

www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/carne_asada/ but I add a peeled, mashed kiwi to the marinade)
Mexican Rice (from this recipe: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2011/05/mexican-rice.html
Coleslaw

Friday--
Oven baked chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Drop biscuits wtih homemade strawberry jam

Saturday--
Nachos (tortilla chips, taco meat, cheese, salsa)
Salad
Cantaloupe

Sunday--
Beef chuck pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Berries

After having to come up with $500 unexpectedly for my son's medical treatment at the end of last month, it meant that after paying all bills we had $450 left to get through the next two weeks. Well, today is the last day of that two weeks. Tomorrow is payday. It was harder than I thought it would be, because I have gotten used to the ability to buy little things pretty much when we want them. Big things we save up for of course, but if I wanted to buy a bushel of organic apricots, normally I would have been able to just go and do that. If I wanted to go and purchase a couple extra garden stakes, I could do it. With that extra $500 missing from the budget, there was no way.

I had to really remember how we used to do things back when things were super tight, but fortunately it's not been that long ago. So we all did some belt-tightening and we've made it through. And with $49 still in the checking account, so clearly it's doable. The kids had a few cases of the "I wants" but I just kept reminding them of the medical bills. We don't believe in hiding the truth about finances from our kids. They are old enough to get it and we want them to live in the real world and not understand the truth about money, budgets and bills. This month I have budgeted for the extra medical and although it will still be a little tight, it won't be so much of a challenge as being blind-sided by it.

It has shown me though that there are places I could tighten the budget so we could pay off a little bit more or save a little bit more, so I think I am going to keep that in mind for the future.

---------------

Tonight for dinner we had roast chicken. There was a lot left over (I got a five pound organic bird). We will be eating it for lunch for the next couple days in one form or another. I picked all the meat off the bones and I've finally got enough to make stock. So tonight before bed I am going to throw the chicken carcasses I have been saving in the freezer and all the onion skins and tops and bottoms, garlic skins, and carrot peels that I have been saving along with a whole fresh onion, some carrots that are getting to the end of their life, a bunch of celery leaves and the innermost stalks no one likes to eat, some crushed garlic, peppercorns, turmeric, marjoram, sage, sea salt, basil, thyme and parsley into the crockpot and cover it with water. I am going for some major flavor. I will let it cook on low overnight and in the morning I will have beautiful chicken stock.

Then I will strain it, pour it back into the crockpot, saute fresh carrots, onion, and celery and cook them until they are soft. I will add some of the chicken and then I will pour it all into quart jars and pressure can it. The recipe I saw recommended you put your chicken and vegetables into the jars first so that it fills them about 2/3 of the way and then add your hot broth. This way makes sure that the heat penetrates all the way to the center of the jar, very important in canning. I might do 2 pint jars of just broth, too.

We will then have homemade shelf-stable chicken soup and broth ready on the shelf. All I will have to do in the future will be to heat it, add some noodles if I want them, simmer until they are soft and there you go. Homemade, healthy, organic soup and you can bet it won't cost what it does in the store, especially when half the ingredients in the stock are things you would have thrown away or composted anyway.

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I picked three more pints of raspberries today, another quarter pint of blueberries and 10 blackberries. In a few more days I think the blueberries will be in serious business and another week and it will be the blackberries turn to explode.

And I'm pretty sure we're going to have grapes this year. I just am not sure when. Does anyone know when grapes get ripe in the Pacific Northwest? They are Concords.

We've made it through all of the potatoes we dug up when starting the garden, so I will have to stop by the store to buy those and corn on the cob today and I will need more milk around Thursday, otherwise I am set for food for the week. I do need to make buns and bread tonight for future meals this week, too. Anyway, here is my meal plan for the week. Doing this every week again is really helping me stick to my food budget while still purchasing mostly organic fruits and veggies, and pasture raised, sustainable protein.

Monday--
Pork chops
Corn on the cob
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Drop biscuits with homemade strawberry jam

Tuesday--
Bacon cheese burgers
Fried potatoes
Green beans
Cherries

Wednesday--
Spaghetti
Garlic cheese meatballs
Texas toast
Cherries

Thursday--
Roast chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli/cauliflower
Cloverleaf rolls with homemade strawberry jam

Friday--
Homemade Pizza with uncured pepperoni, homemade sausage, uncured Canadian bacon, onions and red bell peppers
Coleslaw
Cherries

Saturday--
Tropical Island Chicken Stir-fry

Sunday--
Beef chuck pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Drop biscuits with homemade strawberry jam

Alternate meal in case I am too tired to do the planned meal--
Pancakes, ham, and scrambled eggs. I did this one day this past week instead of my planned meal because I was really tired. It was nice to have it as a backup plan and really easy to fix.

Wednesday--
Ribeye steaks
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Corn on the Cob
Nectarines

Thursday--
Toasted Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
Chili or Soup
Cole slaw
French Fries (Homemade)
Pineapple

Friday--
Homemade pizza
Cole slaw
Salad
Cherries

Saturday--
Chicken
Baked potatoes
Broccoli/Cauliflower

Sunday--
Beef Chuck Pot Roast
Drop biscuits with jam of choice
Green beans
Mashed potatoes and gravy

Well, I haven't posted my meal plan for this week even though I made one and a good thing, too. I've had to redo it. The circuit the stove is on shorted out today. That whole area needs to be rewired it's so old. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow evening if Mom's handyman can make it over, but it may not so we need to cook things that can be made on the electric griddle, the Foreman grill, the crockpot, the Belgian waffle maker, in the microwave or the deep fat fryer. While it's nice to have those options, it does make things a bit more difficult to plan for.

Anyway, today's meal ended up being:
Pork chops (on the grill)
French fries (in the deep fat fryer, had planned fried potatoes on the stove top)
Salad
Cherries

The rest of the week goes as follows:

Tuesday--
Belgian waffles
Ham made on the griddle
Leftover broccoli and cauliflower
Strawberries or cherries

Wednesday--
Had planned on bacon cheeseburgers but I can't make buns until the oven is fixed so if not:
Picnic ham made in the crockpot
Sweet potato tater tots (was planning on baking in the oven, so will make in the fryer if necessary)
Coleslaw
Bananas or cherries

Thursday--
Should have the oven back by then so:
Bacon Cheeseburgers
Pineapple or nectarines
Green beans

Friday--
Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches on homemade bread
Salad
Strawberries or nectarines

Saturday--
Homemade pizza
Cole slaw
Leftover fruit from the week

Sunday--
Pot roast
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Leftover fruit from the week

I may have to make adjustments depending on the stove, but hopefully this will work. I can make bread in the bread machine for the toasted cheese sandwiches on the griddle if necessary, just need the oven for buns. We've gotten so spoiled with the taste of homemade bread and buns I think we'd rather go without than buy storebought now.

Monday--
Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches (on homemade bread)
Muir Glen organic chicken noodles soup (DS and I)
Tomato Basil Bisque (DD and I forget what brand)
Cole slaw
Cherries

Tuesday--
Homemade pizza with pepperoni, ground beef, an orange bell pepper that needs using up, onions, and ham
Salad
Pineapple

Wednesday--
Club sandwiches (bacon, roast beef, cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce from the garden, and choice of mayo, mustard, or plain) on homeamde bread
Cole slaw
Leftover fruit

Thursday--
Spaghetti and Meatballs (will be using my own saved bread crumbs from my own baked bread)
Homemade garlic bread
Cole slaw and green beans
Strawberries and bananas

Friday--
Pork chops
Fried potatoes from the garden
broccoli/cauliflower
Leftover fruit salad

Saturday--
Bacon cheeseburgers
Homemade French Fries
Salad
Leftover fruit

Sunday--
Pot roast
Mashed potatoes from the garden
Leftover broccoli and cauliflower, leftover green beans
Bananas and apples

I think I was out from 11:30 to 2:30 today. It was hot, the car gets even hotter, and I forgot to take a water bottle with me. Plus I kept forgetting to put up my sunshade whenever I parked.

I did my big run to the Food Co-op. I got my freshly ground peanut butter so I will make peanut butter cookies tomorrow. I didn't get the Camano Island eggs this time. Instead I got some from Misty Meadows, which is an even more local farm (same county).

http://www.mistymeadowsfarm.com/eggs.html.

They do have a few stores in the greater Seattle area that they provide eggs for. I will report in on them when I have eaten some tomorrow. They are more expensive than the Camano Island eggs, but I figure our new hens will be laying in about four to six weeks and that's not too long to pay a little more for eggs if they are as good as everyone raves about.

Of course I got several other items, including Muir Glen Chicken Noodle soup. This is the only chicken noodle soup DS will eat other than homemade or Campbell's (which has so much stuff in it that I don't want him having/and or he is allergic to). now when he is sick he can have that if I don't have enough stuff on hand to make stock.

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Speaking of stock I have been keeping two bags in the freezer lately. One is of chicken bones that I have picked the meat from and one is of things like onion and garlic skins, onion tops, carrot peels, celery leaves, etc. From what I have been reading there is actually a lot of flavor in those things that you would normally discard and you can use them to make your stock instead of using actual vegetables that you then throw away. We shall see. If it doesn't have the flavor it should I will just throw in the appropriate vegetables. Either way what is left after cooking will either go on the compost or to the chickens.

Another thing that I read is that you need the bones of four or five chickens (or at least two turkeys) to make really good stock. There just isn't enough there on one chicken carcass to get the really good meaty flavor. I've always had to highly season my stock in the past and think this might be the reason why. So I am saving all of the bones from the chicken I make. Well, not what we eat directly off of, but whatever is left over and I pick all the meat off.

I also read that for really good beef stock you need at least five pounds of beef bones and you need to roast them first. Well, I guess I knew that they should be roasted, but not that you needed that many to make a good stock. I am really learning a lot from some of these books I got from the library.

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I am thinking about possibly making some homemade soap. When we get our beef, I am going to ask for some of the suet (the fat around the kidneys) for making tallow. I mean, I am paying for the whole thing (or half of the thing) so that should include the suet as well. You can get the organ meats if you ask for them, so I imagine the suet shouldn't be too hard for them to throw in. If not, oh well. You can make soap from vegetable oils instead of animal fat, so that is another course I could take. I have reserved the book Smart Soapmaking at the library and it should be arriving at my branch early next week.

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I am also hoping that Joel Salatin's book Folks, This Ain't Normal will come in soon. I am third on the hold list, the library has 5 copies, and three of them are overdue. The other two are due on the 21st and 22nd. I hate it when people keep books out past their due date, especially new books that they know other people are waiting to read. Joel is a big advocate of pasture raised, humanely raised, organic livestock. He is the guy that the author of Omnivore's Dilemma visited and he runs Polyface Farms, which is featured in the documentary Food, Inc.

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One of the chickens (Queen) dug up some of the plants in the vegetable garden. Fortunately I saw them and got them back into the ground in time. I then mulched around all the plants with straw, hoping that if we hide the dirt it won't tempt them to scratch in it so much. I also put up some white wire fencing from the old house to hopefully mark it as off limits. They could go through it though, so I am also going to get some rodent wire mesh and some zip ties and attach it to the fencing. A determined chicken could fly over it, but would probably have a hard time getting back out and would think twice before doing it again. Hopefully that won't cost too much.



The chicken was very indignant, as you can see in the photo, when I told her off and picked her up and stuck her back in the fenced area. She wouldn't even look at me. But then later when she got out again and I was sitting on the porch swing (which is not on the porch) she came over and snuggled my feet, so I think she's forgiven me.

I think I was out from 11:30 to 2:30 today. It was hot, the car gets even hotter, and I forgot to take a water bottle with me. Plus I kept forgetting to put up my sunshade whenever I parked.

I did my big run to the Food Co-op. I got my freshly ground peanut butter so I will make peanut butter cookies tomorrow. I didn't get the Camano Island eggs this time. Instead I got some from Misty Meadows, which is an even more local farm (same county).

http://www.mistymeadowsfarm.com/eggs.html. They do have a few stores in the greater Seattle area that they provide eggs for. I will report in on them when I have eaten some tomorrow. They are more expensive than the Camano Island eggs, but I figure our new hens will be laying in about four to six weeks and that's not too long to pay a little more for eggs if they are as good as everyone raves about.

Of course I got several other items, including Muir Glen Chicken Noodle soup. This is the only chicken noodle soup DS will eat other than homemade or Campbell's (which has so much stuff in it that I don't want him having/and or he is allergic to). now when he is sick he can have that if I don't have enough stuff on hand to make stock.

Speaking of stock I have been keeping two bags in the freezer lately. One is of chicken bones that I have picked the meat from and one is of things like onion and garlic skins, onion tops, carrot peels, celery leaves, etc. From what I have been reading there is actually a lot of flavor in those things that you would normally discard and you can use them to make your stock instead of using actual vegetables that you then throw away. We shall see. If it doesn't have the flavor it should I will just throw in the appropriate vegetables. Either way what is left after cooking will either go on the compost or to the chickens.

Another thing that I read is that you need the bones of four or five chickens (or at least two turkeys) to make really good stock. There just isn't enough there on one chicken carcass to get the really good meaty flavor. I've always had to highly season my stock in the past and think this might be the reason why. So I am saving all of the bones from the chicken I make. Well, not what we eat directly off of, but whatever is left over and I pick all the meat off.

I also read that for really good beef stock you need at least five pounds of beef bones and you need to roast them first. Well, I guess I knew that they should be roasted, but not that you needed that many to make a good stock. I am really learning a lot from some of these books I got from the library.

I am thinking about possibly making some homemade soap. When we get our beef, I am going to ask for some of the suet (the fat around the kidneys) for making tallow. I mean, I am paying for the whole thing (or half of the thing) so that should include the suet as well. You can get the organ meats if you ask for them, so I imagine the suet shouldn't be too hard for them to throw in. If not, oh well. You can make soap from vegetable oils instead of animal fat, so that is another course I could take. I have reserved the book Smart Soapmaking at the library and it should be arriving at my branch early next week.

I am also hoping that Joel Salatin's book Folks, This Ain't Normal will come in soon. I am third on the hold list, the library has 5 copies, and three of them are overdue. The other two are due on the 21st and 22nd. I hate it when people keep books out past their due date, especially new books that they know other people are waiting to read. Joel is a big advocate of pasture raised, humanely raised, organic livestock. He is the guy that the author of Omnivore's Dilemma visited and he runs Polyface Farms, which is featured in the documentary Food, Inc.

One of the chickens (Queen) dug up some of the plants in the vegetable garden. Fortunately I saw them and got them back into the ground in time. I then mulched around all the plants with straw, hoping that if we hide the dirt it won't tempt them to scratch in it so much. I also put up some white wire fencing from the old house to hopefully mark it as off limits. They could go through it though, so I am also going to get some rodent wire mesh and some zip ties and attach it to the fencing. A determined chicken could fly over it, but would probably have a hard time getting back out and would think twice before doing it again. Hopefully that won't cost too much.



The chicken was very indignant when I told her off and picked her up and stuck her back in the fenced area. She wouldn't even look at me. But then later when she got out again and I was sitting on the porch swing (which is not on the porch) she came over and snuggled my feet, so I think she's forgiven me.

I finished planting the long strip of garden today. I put in the pickling cucumbers around the poppies, since we'll be pulling the poppies after they bloom. The cukes are tiny now but they will expand to fill the space. I also put in three hills of burpless cucumbers further down. In the photo below they are where the two trellises and the smaller stake are at. The large stake is for the pole beans. I will probably find a couple more stakes for that since there are six plants there.



I got the other three tomato plants in the ground and now all six have cages. Mom had a bunch of cages left over from several years ago. I put in the purple basil and the tri-color sage in front of the tomatoes and by the other herbs. Then I put in 14 cauliflower plants. They were supposed to be six packs, but each one had an extra little one in them. I don't know if they'll take or not, but I consider them a bonus anyway. They are in the middle row in front of the cucumbers and beans and all the way down. The first row of plants that are more closely spaced are the 24 plugs of kohlrabi. It is one of my favorite vegetables and part of the brassica family.

The only thing I haven't planted is the broccoli. They aren't overgrowing their pots yet and Mom has decided she is going to pull up her irises, take out the weeds and divide them, then replant them elsewhere so then we can move the compost over to where they were and plant the broccoli between the tomatoes and the compost bin. I'd prefer to just plant them where the irises were and work in some good compost first, but Mom is being Mom and once she gets an idea into her head it's hard to change her mind.

The three older hens came up to keep me company, but they kept heading back over to the old garage pad where the Crown Vic is parked. There are lots of tasty weeds that grow up through the cracked pad and lots of bugs that make their home there.



While I was working the wind kept bringing the heady, sweet scent of roses from our rose tree. Okay, technically it's an apple tree, but the roses have grown up into it so much you can hardly tell where one ends and the other begins.



The ducks and chickens like to shelter under this tree and in it (note the bird in the crotch) during the heat of the day. We keep it muddy there and they really enjoy it. They also like to hide under there when I take pictures.



They spend most of the day, however, on the greener side of this fence where they have plenty of room to roam, but are still fenced in as they are too young to know not to wander out of our yard or the neighbor's yard. (She likes them to come over and fertilize her garden! Not to mention the extra eggs that will be coming her way when the chicks start laying in about six more weeks.)



All in all, it was a very productive day and I am looking forward to a good harvest towards the end of the summer. I sure hope it all comes to fruition and that the weather will be good for growing.

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Meal planning has been working very well this week. And leftover management has been incredible since they put a microwave in the cafeteria for the students on Monday. DS has been taking quesadillas made with leftover chicken or potroast and the containers are coming back either empty or mostly empty. He's actually eating! And I don't feel horrible if he wastes another sandwich made with expensive additive free deli meat. And when he doesn't eat it all, he has been eating it for a late evening snack after tae kwon do. He's always hungry after tae kwon do.

I haven't wasted anything this week and we have all been very happily eating up whatever leftover vegetables there are from the previous day at the current day's dinner. It's nice not to have to make side dishes every single day, just to reheat them. I think the switch to organic veggies all the time is what is making them so appealing. They just taste better.

I do want to get some more Pyrex containers with BPA-free lids. I particularly want to get the 4 cup and 6 cup sizes. It is just so nice to be able to clearly see what is in the fridge and to also be able to heat things up in the same dishes without worrying about discoloration or leaching and without making extra dishes to then clean.

I am in the process of reading American Wasteland by Jonathon Bloom, who also runs the blog

www.wastedfood.com. It is very eye-opening and it is reaffirming my commitment to try to stop food waste in this house and to grow and eat our own food as much as we can.

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I made chicken from the ranch tonight. I had Mom talk me through cutting it up and she showed me where to look for the joints to cut through. I had done it before when I was fourteen and she taught me how, but it had been so long since I'd done it, I just couldn't really remember. I had read about it in the copy of The Cook's Illustrated Complete Poultry Cookbook, but it helped to have her going over it with me. I think I can do it next time on my own. Buying whole chickens is definitely in my future.

We fried it and it made a huge difference. It was much better than the one we roasted, although I still don't find it to be as stunning as I expected after eating their beef and pork. After dinner I picked the meat off the remaining breast and back pieces to make DS's quesadillas with. I put those bones into my soup stock bag. And I set aside the one thigh that was left to be eaten whole for my lunch tomorrow. Being as it is a 3.5 pound chicken there isn't enough to make enchiladas, too. I'd need a 4 pound chicken for that, I think.

I also finished off the last broken half of a peanut butter cookie and all the crumbs in the cookie jar with my dinner tonight. I will probably make more tomorrow after I go to the Food Co-op and get more freshly ground peanut butter. I still have probably enough left for one batch, but I wanted to wash out the jar and let it dry overnight. The crumbs were just as tasty as a full, whole cookie, despite what my kids might think.

Those potatoes I dug yesterday were so delcious tonight. Sweet and fresh and about as tasty as potato can be. We had them mashed with gravy with our potroast, green beans, cloverleaf rolls, and salad (fresh picked from the window boxes right before dinner). Anyway, I boiled up enough potatoes to save some out for dinner tomorrow and those ones will be fried.

Monday--
Pork chops
Broccoli/cauliflower
Fried potatoes
corn
grapes (except DS) and cantaloupe

Tuesday--
Spaghetti
Meatballs
Salad or coleslaw depending on how much cabbage is left
Garlic toast

Wednesday--
Tropical Island Chicken Stir-fry (has lots of veggies)
Cantaloupe

Thursday--
Club sandwiches (homemade bread toasted, lettuce, tomato (if I can find an organic ripe one) ham, turkey, cheddar)
Sweet potato fries

Friday--
Homemade pizza (ground beef, bell peppers, onions, pepperoni)
Salad

Saturday--
Oven Fried Chicken
Steamed baby potatoes
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Fruit

Sunday--
Pot roast
corn on the cob
green beans
cloverleaf rolls
fruit

I may swap out the club sandwiches if I don't find a good tomato for breakfast food (ham and turkey are frozen anyway), likely Belgian waffles with strawberries, sausages, and sliced cucumbers (yes, I know, but I have to serve a vegetable at dinner time).

Anyway, that's the plan. I need to make one shopping trip this week to buy a gallon of milk, strawberries, corn on the cob, bananas and a tomato. Everything else is on hand.

I made a loaf of bread tonight. I found a recipe for a single loaf instead of making two loaves since it is so hard to go through two loaves of bread when DH is away. It smells good. Hopefully it will be good, too.

A few months ago I upped my grocery budget to $800. I figured that switching over completely to pasture-raised, organic protein and sustainably raised organic produce was going to really hit us hard and that there was no way I could manage at $600 a month. Well, guess what? I just added up all my grocery receipts for the month. I am under the original $600 budget!

$269.44 on beef, chicken, and pork (including duck)
__40.92 on organic milk
___7.00 on organic peanut butter
__15.96 on organic cheese
__21.95 on organic pizza toppings
__80.42 on organic vegetables
__12.73 on organic flour
__42.49 on organic fruit
__20.00 on organic, pasture-raised duck/chicken eggs
+_37.00 on organic butter (bought in bulk)
------------
$595.83

Okay, it's only $4.17 under, but I was struggling to hit that before switching. I think it helps that I am no longer buying any bread products, but making all of our bread. It also helps that the meat we are getting is much more filling so we are eating less of it. Actually that's true for the fruits and vegetables as well and the homemade bread, so everything lasts longer.

Another thing that helps is the meal planning, of course. Even if I don't stick to it every day, I have a list of pinch hitter meals. What are pinch hitter meals? Something I can get on the table fast when the other meal plan falls through.

Things that fall into the pinch hitter category:

Angel hair pasta in tomato sauce, ground beef, green beans from a can, fruit.

Boneless skinless chicken thighs cooked on the George Foreman grill, leftover vegetables or quickly boiled broccoli/cauliflower (only if it's been pre-cut up on another day), canned corn, bread.

Chili or soup (previously homemade or canned), club sandwiches, fruit.

Fish and chips in the deep fat fryer (not the best for health, but once in a while is fine). I do keep a box of codfish filets (with the fewest additives I can find) and a couple bags of Alexias organic French fries or sweet potato fries in the freezer. When I have time I will make fish and chips from scratch, but this is for a time crunch day. I'll usually skip the veg on this day because it is filling.

So it definitely helps to have the meal plan, but it also helps to have a backup meal plan list as well of things that are on hand. And of course, leftover management. That is always key.

I think I will leave the $800 budget in place for now. This month could have been a fluke. But any extra money will go first into the freezer fund and then into the beef fund. Well, first to the $300 deposit we need to put down to claim a half a beef for later slaughter, and then to the freezer fund.

I don't think that I even paid the slightest bit of attention to the schedule this week when I made up the meal plan. Monday was an airport day and we didn't even end up eating until almost 8 p.m. Yesterday and today DS had tae kwon do so planning elaborate food for those days just doesn't make sense. He has belt testing tomorrow at the inconvenient time of 5:30 to 6:30, which is our usual meal time. When he goes to classes he goes to the 6:50 class so that works out great with our schedule, but testing never does.

Tonight I just ended up making spaghetti, ground beef, fruit and salad, because I did not want to babysit food for a long period of time. I did make buns and cloverleaf rolls (same dough) today though, so I can make burgers tomorrow.

I guess the important point is I have a bunch of meal ideas ready and I have the food to implement them, so I don't have to run out and get what I need, it's all here. And no matter how tempting it might be to go to Boomer's and get burgers tomorrow, mine will taste better (although it's close with them and their mostly from scratch food, my buns and flavors still beat theirs, but their patties are great) and be less expensive even with pastured beef and pork in the mix.

So Friday will get to be chicken. It's still not quite thawed all the way through. Next time I want to make it on a Wednesday I will take it out on a Sunday morning when I put the roast in the crockpot. I am really looking forward to eating this chicken on Friday. We haven't had their chicken yet at all, but between the amazing beef and the incredible pork, I'm pretty sure the chicken will be impressive as well.

One thing I'm worried about is whether or not we'll make it through all the bread this week. DS managed to lose 3 teeth this week, his last ones, thankfully, but he can't chew through the meat sandwiches right now. DD isn't eating bread much as she went on the same controlled-carb eating plan as me in the last two days and bread is not what she reaches for the one time a day she can have high carbs. It's fruit or corn or potatoes and milk. Mom had claimed she was going to eat it, but then she got annoyed with herself because she wouldn't stop eating it, so now she's gone back to eating the tasteless storebought stuff that doesn't tempt her to eat it. *shakes head* A little self-control around the good-tasting bread would be enough, you know?

DS did want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich tonight, so at least 2 more slices of bread are gone and everyone had a cloverleaf roll. I made six buns for hamburgers even though I will only be making four hamburgers. I know my mother and she will filch a bun before I get to making the burgers. The fifth one is just back up.

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If nothing else it will contribute to the ducks' diet. Two of the ducks seem to have paired up, so we figure they are a boy and a girl. Not sure if the other two are both girls or both boys or one of each and just behind the curve of Patches and Inigo Montoya. I hope this means we'll have duck eggs. I used the last of the ones I bought at the food co-op in the buns and rolls I made today I really do think they make a superior baked good.

One of the chickens was making a noise slightly reminiscent of a rooster learning to crow. I hope not. If there is a rooster we are not allowed to keep one in the city limits and we will have to take him to a farm like we did with one of the first set.

---------------------------

I went to the Food Co-op to buy flour. Between pizza, rolls, and bread I will use about 12 to 13 cup a week. I picked up an 8 pound bag, but I think DH and I will definitely go down to the flour mill and see about getting a 50 pound bag because I am going through it pretty fast on the weeks Chris is home and reasonably fast otherwise.

I also bought some more organic, sustainably raised plant starts there, one basil, one oregano, one thyme, (all three of which I want to dry as I use them in all of my Italian sauces. I also bought a yellow zucchini start and 2 organic heirloom tomato plants. One is a good Italian Roma so that'll make good sauce or paste and the other is an early producer called Moscowitz.

I also picked up 2 dozen of the Camano Island pasture-raised eggs. Two of our hens have been hiding their nesting areas so only one is leaving eggs where we can find them. No way can anyone have enough with one egg a day. These eggs are just as good as theirs though. And the youngsters aren't quite old enough to be laying yet. Maybe by summer's end. Then we'll be giving them away.

I also stopped and got a gallon of Organic Valley milk at Haggen. Just one, though. I am still going to try to find a place that has the holstein homogenized glass bottled milk from local cows. I know it exists.

Note to self: When you put bacon cheeseburgers on the meal plan, you need to make sure you remember to actually make buns that morning.

Yeah, I forgot that and I didn't want to run and buy them from the store. Now that I have gotten into the swing of making bread and rolls again, I don't particularly want to eat the other stuff anymore. So I will make buns tomorrow and we will have bacon cheeseburgers tomorrow and I will bump everything on the meal plan by a day. Except Sunday, which will still be potroast. Saturday's meal can move to Monday or something.

This is just as well as I don't think the chicken will be thawed by tomorrow night anyway and I prefer to thaw things in the fridge instead of in the micro. I mean I'll use the micro if I need to, but I just prefer the other way, because sometimes the micro will cook the edges and the center will still be frozen and that's just a pain to deal with.

We had Thursday's corn and Wednesday's broccoli so I will have to rearrange things a bit but that is no big deal. Oh, and we had pork chops from the ranch for the protein. Oh, my gosh, I have never tasted such good pork chops in my life. I think this farm is the best thing that ever happened to us foodwise.

Tomorrow I will also make up one of my lunchtime low carb meatloaves. I usually make those twice a week so I don't have to think at lunch, I can just heat and eat. Sometimes I will only make one a week as I can get sick of it (though I rarely do and a few days off from it and I'm back to eating it). I usually add something green (cucumbers, celery) or salad greens.

I harvested the first greens from my window box garden today. I absolutely love fresh greens and these are so pretty and vibrant.



Of course this not so little guy was hanging out in the front garden.



Fortunately he was nowhere near my lettuce up on the deck. I don't think he'd be quite that brave with so many other tender plants to eat further away from human habitation.

I've got lots of blossoms on my organic heirloom brandywine tomato plant. I hope that bodes well for a good harvest.

It's a bit late, but better late than never, right?

Monday--Pizza, various fruit that needed eating, salad, milk

Tuesday--Bacon cheeseburgers with sweet potato tater tots and coleslaw, strawberries

Wednesday--Fried chicken (from the farm), bananas that need to get eaten, leftover coleslaw, broccoli/cauliflower, milk

Thursday--Chicken Ravioli Bake, corn on the cob, cantaloupe, milk

Friday--Steaks, potatoes fried in bacon grease saved from earlier in the week, sauteed green beans

Saturday--Baked potato soup, roasted turkey legs, and salad. Whatever fruit is left and also any leftover veggies if we have them.

Sunday--Beef chuck pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, strawberries.

I need to start coming up with lunch menus in a couple of weeks as well, once school lets out. I am thinking along the lines of taco salad or chicken salad or boneless skinless chicken with cheddar melted on top and finger veggies, like cucumbers, celery, radishes, etc. Hopefully the kohlrabi will be available by then, too. I love that stuff and it is so good for you.

So I sat down and figured out the food for the week, based on what I already have in the house. Except the corn. I will need to buy more corn, but they have been having sales left and right. I also need to buy some bananas, but I think that is it, so my grocery spending should be minimal. I may need to buy milk mid-week, also, but otherwise I think I'm good. So maybe I will spend $25. Which is good as I am intending to spend $300 on sustainable beef, chicken, and pork on Saturday.

Oh, my lettuces are big enough for me to start harvesting leaves, so I think I am done with buying lettuce for the next month or so until the plants bolt. And my heirloom brandywine tomato plant shot up during the three day heatwave. It almost doubled in size. It's started setting blossoms. I need to plant a few more things now. Cucumbers, green onions, and green beans. Just need to do it.

I have pizza dough rising for dinner tonight, have shredded up a 2 pound block of mozzarella cheese, and have prepared garlic butter. I am feeling particularly domestic diva-ish this week with all of this baking and whatnot. Later tonight I am going to make up some homemade turkey corn dog. DS likes to eat a corndog after school to tide him over until dinner. Actually, I might make corn puppies instead, as I don't think we have any sticks. Anyway, here is the food plan for the week.

Monday:
Pizza with ham, pepperoni, yellow onions, red peppers, mozzarella cheese, a sprinkling of cheddar. I will also make my homemade pizza sauce, which basically consists of half a can of organic tomato sauce sprinkled with basil, oregano, marjoram, and thyme.
Homemade bread, toasted, with homemade garlic butter
Leftover organic broccoli/cauliflower
Organic strawberries

Tuesday:
Tropical Chicken Stir-Fry (carrots, snow peas, bean sprouts, celery)
Rice

Wednesday:
Spaghetti with homemade sauce (I have some in the freezer)
Three cheese garlic meatballs
Homemade bread, toasted, with homemade garlic butter
Organic salad

Thursday:
Organic, pasture raised roasted duck
Roasted potatoes and carrots
Green beans
Organic bananas

Friday:
Organic, pasture-raised beef Ribeye steaks
Homemade buns
Organic Broccoli/Cauliflower
Cantaloupe

Saturday:
Fried Chicken
Fried potaotes
Leftover organic broccoli/cauliflower
Pineapple

Sunday:
Organic, pasture-raised beef chuck roast
Organic mashed potatoes with beef gravy
Green beans
Whatever fruit needs to be eaten up